Java is an island that lies in the tropics far to the south of China. Most people in Indonesia live there.
Java is a crowded place as the world goes: it has as many people as Japan yet it is only one-third the size. It has half the land of Britain but twice as many people.
Even though it has so many people, Java has only a few large cities, Jakarta being the largest. Most of the island is filled with rice fields, small towns and low blue mountains (some of them volcanoes). The people are poor, but not shockingly so. Every bit of land that can be turned to good use has been.
It has few dogs.
Indonesia is in effect a Javanese empire: Java provides most of the country’s leaders, it sends its people out to settle the other islands and it even has had a practice of Javanization – making other people in Indonesia more like those in Java. It seems the Javanese have simply taken the place of the Dutch, who once ruled the islands.
The Javanese are Muslim Malays, making them similar to the people of Malaysia to the north.
The Javanese language is related not just to those of Malaysia and the nearby islands, but also to those in the Philippines, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific. It is even related to Maori.
History: Java has been ruled in turn by three different civilizations. In round numbers:
- 500-1500: Hindu: Hindu kingdoms began to appear in the 500s. In its early history Java was influenced more by India than by China. In the 800s the great Buddhist and Hindu temples of Borobudur and Prambanan were built. In the 1300s and 1400s Java became the heart of Majapahit, a Hindu empire that ruled most of the islands. When the empire fell its top people fled to neighbouring Bali, which is still Hindu to this day.
- 1500-1800: Islamic: After 1500 Muslim traders came from the sea and converted Java to Islam. The old temples were abandoned.
- 1800- : Western: In the 1800s and early 1900s Java was ruled by the Dutch and took on some of the ways of the West. It fell briefly under British rule in the 1810s and Japanese rule in the 1940s. Since independence from the Netherlands, it has become part of the American Empire, aka the “Free World”. The Javanese now write with Roman letters.
The Dutch ruled from the city of Batavia in the north-west. Now known as Jakarta, it is still the seat of government. But in the old days the Hindu kings ruled from Yogyakarta and Surakarta in the heart of the island.
What has made Java important in history: it is a large fertile area near a point through which all trade between India and China must pass.
Java has been known in the West as far back as Roman times.
A common dish, especially in the morning, is to eat rice with eggs and maybe chicken.
See also:
Leave a comment